Hard Bastard(49)

“Will it be safe?”

“Probably. It’s far enough that I doubt anyone here is on the mafia payroll. Still, you’d better stay here just to be safe.”

“Okay.”

He got out and walked quickly into the main lobby. I sat there, head spinning, feeling dizzy as I waited.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what he said. My life was never going to be the same, and part of me knew that when it all started. I had hoped that maybe we could find some solution that all this that meant I could have a normal life, but that was probably naïve.

I was going to have to let go of everything that I knew. I already was getting used to the violence and the terror that was following me around. But now I was going to have to accept that my life was always going to be different from what I had known before.

Maybe that was a good thing. Being with Gage made me feel good, incredibly good, but I didn’t know what was going to happen with him beyond this. As far as I knew, he was just helping me until the danger was over.

But maybe the danger would never be over.

I didn’t want to think about that. I had to trust Gage and believe that we were going to get past all of this somehow. Even if I was never going to practice law again, I could do something, still be someone. I didn’t have to be the Sadie that I’d always known, and maybe that was a good thing.

My whole life had been spent studying and working, trying to live up to my own expectations for myself. I hadn’t had much time to really learn what I wanted to do and be. I just dove right into law because I thought that was a good career field and could give me a good job.

But so far, it had done nothing but bring me pain. I left Seattle because of it and I might lose everything because of it in Ashertown. Gage got dragged into all of this mess too, all because of my stupid job.

Maybe it really was time to move on. I didn’t know who I could be with Gage, or if I was even going to be with him, but I did know that I liked when he was around and I liked how brave I felt when he looked at me.

After a few minutes, he returned. I climbed out of the car, got my things, and followed him back inside. We were in the very back corner of the fourth floor, tucked away next to the stairs.

The room itself was much nicer than the last one, though that wasn’t saying much. It still wasn’t in great shape, but at least I wasn’t worried about getting some kind of infection from sleeping on the sheets.

He tossed his stuff down into a corner and fell onto the bed.

“Tired?” I asked him.

He grunted. “I’m never tired.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t think that’s true.” I climbed into bed next to him and put my head on his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me like it was perfectly natural. We pressed our bodies together and just stayed there together, breathing deeply. I could hear the deep and steady thumping of his heart in his chest, and that brought me more comfort than I would have guessed.

We still had no plan. When everything was said and done, we didn’t know what we were going to do. The truth and the key to all this was probably hidden away in my files that were still back in my apartment, but that didn’t matter. Gage thought it was too dangerous, and I wasn’t going to disagree with him.

Despite all of that, I still felt secure in his arms. It surprised me all over again how tender he could be, just laying there in bed with me. He was breathing deeply and evenly, and it took me a few minutes to realize that he had fallen asleep.

I smiled to myself, closing my eyes. He was comfortable enough to fall asleep with me in his arms. I didn’t know what my future would bring, but I did know what my present would hold.

There was going to be Gage and more Gage. I’d take as much of him as I could and then ask for more.





Chapter 20





Gage





I woke up around ten in the morning, surprised that I had slept so deeply. The light was bright through the crappy blinds but it hadn’t even bothered me a little bit. Sadie was sleeping next to me curled into a little ball, her breathing even and deep. I sat up, looking around the room.

This was just a holding pattern. We were in hiding, but I hated just waiting for something to happen. I knew that I needed to make my own damn luck in this world and couldn’t sit back and hope. I made shit happen, I didn’t just wait.

I got up and remembered something I had said the day before. The Petrov Family had enemies in Ashertown, although none of them were particularly threatening. Still, there was at least one other mob that could hold their own against the Petrov family, at least for a short period.

I had friends in the Irish mob. Well, I didn’t have friends, exactly, but I knew guys. We had worked together on a few jobs a couple years ago. The Spanish cartels were moving into the area and we decided to band together to try and fight them off. That hadn’t worked, but it did put me in touch with a few guys on the other side.